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AN ADDRESS
VICE OF GAMBLING;
Delivered lo the Medio*] Pupib of Tramylvania Uuivertily, November 4,1884.
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BY CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D. 111?- [&•&"
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LEXINGTON, KY:
fRTBJTBD BY J CLARKE % CO., UPFER-STRBBT.
1834.
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Lexington Medical Hall, )
November 7th, 1834. $
Dear Sir :
In pursuance of a unanimous resolution, adopted at a meeting
held in the Medical Hall, November 6th, we, a Committee for the pur-
pose, respectfully present to you the thanks of the officers and members
of Transylvania University, for your very eloquent Address on the sub-
ject of Gambling, and request of you a copy for publication.
In tendering to you the public thanks, and request of the meeting,
allow us to subjoin our individual sentiments of respect and esteem.
Respectfully,
D. F. BLACKBURN,
W. A. WARE,
Professor Caldwell. A. M. KELLER.
Gentlemen:
Thanking you for the courtesy of your manner, in conveying
to me the sentiments of the body you represent, let me ask the favour
of you to express to the members of it my sense of the honor they have
done me, as respects my Address on the VICE OF GAMBLING,
and inform them that a copy of it for publication is at their disposal.
Respectfully,
CH: CALDWELL.
Messrs Blackburn,
Ware, and
Keller.
November 7th, 1834.
ADDRESS.
Gentlemen:
Physicians, in common with several other classes of
men, stand related to the world in a twofold capacity; as
members of society, and members of a profession; each hav-
ing claims on them for duties and services corresponding to
its nature. Jn the latter relation chiefly do I purpose to ad-
dress you. The subject, on which I would fix your attention,
earnestly soliciting your serious con sideration of it, has no
more immediate connexion with medicine, than with other
professional callings, or with the common pursuits of the
mechanic, or the agriculturist. Unfortunately, however,
it has so close a connexion with every calling, that, to the
degradation and ruin of many who are engaged in them, it is,
too often, allowed to mingle with them all. To yourselves,
moreover, in your present situation, it is peculiarly impor-
tant. So true is this, that a few incautious steps, in relation
to it, might shed on your characters a blight that would be
incurable, frustrate your own hopes and anticipations, and
those of your families and friends in respect to you, and wi-
ther, in its spring-time, the promise of your lives.
To account to you for the solemn and portentous tone of
this introduction, and convince you that the language and
manner employed in it are fully justified by the subject, and
the moral considerations that have called them forth, I need
only say, that I purpose to submit to you, a few thoughts on
the Vice of Gambling. And, in this early part of my dis-
course, where moderation in a speaker is most customary, be-
cause most required, I fearlessly assert, that a vice more ne-
farious in principle, more foul in its associations, more demor-
alizing in influence, or more destructive in its consequences,
has scarcely an existence. Were I to declare, in unqualified
(4 )
terms, that a vice more atrocious, in these respects, has not
an existence, evidence incontestible might be adduced to
sustain me. For darkness of design, and depth of turpi-
tude, Intemperance, compared to it, is purity and innocence.
Yet have we hundreds of societies formed, and thousands of
placards and pamphlets circulated, for the suppression and
prevention of that failing; and not one to free us from the.
curse or gambling—a practice identical with knavery in its
hatefullest form, allied, in its origin and character, as will
presently appear, to theft,pocket-picking, and robbery, and not
unfrequently the source of murder—a practice, which is, in
fact, a revolting incorporation of almost every description of
vice and profligacy, I hazard nothing, in adding, that a har-
dened thorough-bred gambler presents a more hideous spec-
tacle of complicated viciousness, than any other character
that infests society. Other malefactors may surpass him, in
individual forms of atrocity; but he is an aggregate of the
greatest number.
Is any one who hears me inclined to allege, that my lan-
guage is too unqualified, my representation too indiscriminat-
ing, and my condemnation intemperate? I reply, that they
are not; and, without intending to boast or banter, I stand pre-
pared to maintain my assertion, in its full extent, against all
opposition that may be offered to it, without either exception,
qualification, or abatement. Public gambling-houses amply
sustain me in all I have said; and private ones, whether un-
der the denomination of hotels, parlours, chambers, or coflfee-
rooms, are but miniature likenesses of them; similar in prin-
ciple, but more limited in extent; the cradles and nurseries
of the same vice. The boy begins his gaming career at a
family card-table, the youth continues it at academies and
colleges, and the man ends it in the Pandemonium of Black-
legs. Would to Heaven I that lamentable experience did
not too often testify to the truth of this picture! And let me
here emphatically subjoin, that, while family and other forms
of private gambling are countenanced and practised, public
gambling can never be exterminated. While the seed in
( 5 )
sown, the plant will spring up, the blossom open, and the
fruit be matured. No youth ever makes his debut, and
throws his first card, in a public gaming-house. No; he learns
the game, in an humbler way, at some family table, most
frequently that of his father; and, having acquired confidence
in his skill, and a taste for play, he pursues it in a higher,
and yet higher style, until the fatal issue just referred to oc-
curs.
Cut from a tree the top and the branches, its roots being
untouched, and the former will be reproduced. Destroy its
roots, no other portion being directly injured, and the whole
perishes. So of gambling. Its root is the private family
card-table; its top and branches, public tables of cards and
other games. Suppress the latter, the former continuing, and
they will reappear. Eradicate the former, and render its
extinction permanent, and, like the trunk and branches of a
deracinated tree, the evil will be destroyed.
I shall close these introductory remarks, by observing, that,
should I fail to make good, in detail, what I have thus premis-
ed, in general terms, the fault will be in myself; not in the mat-
ter and means at my disposal. They are ample. On my
own head, therefore, let the penalty fall. If, on the con-
trary, I succeed in my effort, I trust that no ingenuous and
honorable youth, who favours me with his attention, and is
ambitious of usefulness and a spotless name, will ever resort
to public haunts, or mingle in private circles, where gaming
is practised. I flatter myself he will be prevailed on to re-
gard such places and associations in their true character, as
vicious in their principles, and dangerous in their tendencies
to his reputation and interests, as well as to the community,
in which he resides.
Treading, as I am about to do, on critical groand, I am
anxious to be distinctly understood, in all I may say. Before
proceeding, therefore, to the discussion of my subject, I shall
offer to you a few explanatory remarks, which I wish to be
remembered. Whatever may be the real or supposed ap-
pearance to the contrary, my desire and resolution are to a-
(6)
void personality. All my observations will be general, with-
out the slightest allusion to individual characters. As no of-
fence, therefore, is intended, none, I trust, will be taken. I
shall not, however, from any dread of offending, disguise my
abhorrence of the vice I am considering,refrain from mingling,
in the picture I may draw of it, any strength of just and re-
quisite colouring under my control, nor mitigate, in the
slightest degree, the profound reprobation, in which I hold
it. To this let me add, that I shall only so far advert to the
impiety of gambling, as merely to observe, that whatever is
immoral is, of course, irreligious. Its further condemnation,
on that score, belongs to others. Leaving to the clergy,
therefore, to proclaim the penalty that awaits it, in another
world, I shall speak of its nefariousness, and some of its con-
sequences, only in tliis-—of the flagrancy of its outrage on
morals and manners, the irreparable misery it inflicts on
individuals and families, and the deep and manifold mischiefs
it produces in society on a broader scale.
One topic more, and my preliminaries are closed. Of the
terms gambling and gambler different interpretations have
been given, to suit the fancies, and gratify the feelings of dif-
ferent individuals. To prevent all misapprehension of my
meaning on this point, it is sufficient to observe, that, by
gambling, I understand the practice of any game of hazard,
on which things of value are slaked—in more definite language,
in which a design is entertained, and an attempt made, by
one person, to deprive another of his property or possessions,
against his consent, and without the return of an equivalent;
and, by a gambler, I mean, the individual who practices the
game. Nor, in this definition of the crime and the criminal,
do I make any exception, on account of the smallness of the
stake. Though the amount of individual injury may be di-
minished by meager betting, the principle is not changed. A
vice is not the lesa a departure from virtue, because it is
small. Excuse or justify it, and the issue will be, an abun-
dant growth of larger vices. To play fraudulently, is but the
worst kind of gambling; and he that does so, is a Black-leg.
(7)
He doubles his crime, by adding one form of fraud to another,
and coupling meanness with villainy; for it will be made ap-
pear presently, that all gambling is essentially fraudulent.
The very definition of the term testifies to this; and every
concomitant of the practice strengthens the proof.
Gambling is not only wicked; it is also, as already intima-
ted, low and disreputable, as well in its origin, as in its ai-
Eociations. It is the concomitant of a want of useful and
agreeable employment, and is often resorted to, by persons
of mental shallowness and vacancy, to occupy the time,
which would be otherwise consumed in dreamy idleness, or
some grosser form of animal indulgence. It is a native pro-
duct of the human mind, rendered vicious by an ill-directed
or a defective education, which has left certain animal pro-
pensities unsubdued, and neglected to strengthen the higher
faculties, especially the moral and reflective ones. Or the
rebellious propensities may have been maddened and invig-
orated by profligate associates. By persons, whose faculties
are moulded into a proper balance, by a thorough and sound
education, gambling is never indulged in. In other words,
it is practised only by the uneducated, or the badly educated;
while those who are so trained, that their higher and nobler
powers of mind predominate over their lower and compara-
tively ignoble—their moral and intellectual over their ani-
mal—never descend to it, but shun it, as a pursuit congenial
only to the degraded and the vulgar; I should rather say, as
a vice, which steeps the soul in the dregs of corruption and
panders to its worst habits of turpitude and profligacy, dries
up the fountain of the domestic affections, impels its votaries
to beggar wives, children, and friends, cancels every senti-
ment of duty and virtue, whets and barbs afresh the fangs,
and adds fiercer venom to the sting of the worm of offended
conscience, and often leads to desperation and suicide. This
is neither fiction nor extravagance, but a plain recital of're-
corded facts.
Had the practice no evil tendency, it ought, nevertheless,
to be a consideration mortifying to families of standing and
(8)
fashion, not to be able to entertain a party of friends, in
some more tasteful and intellectual way, than by the me-
chanical and often frivolous amusement of a card tabje. Such
an inability bespeaks, in all who are concerned in the mat-
ter, a miserable want of mental resources. From enlight-
ened and refined private society, as well in this as in other
countries, games of hazard are now excluded, as tasteless
and vulgar. They are driven into exile among barbarians
and savages, or consigned to the dram-shop, the tavern, and
the gambling-house, in common with profane and indelicate
language, deep drinking, and other remnants of brutal times,
for which alone they are fit associates. In the advancement
of our race, from semi-barbarism, to the state it has attained
in the most intellectual and polished circles, such games have
become as offensive to refinement and good taste, as they have
always been to morality and religion. And their places are
supplied by the more pure and elevated amusements of music,
dancing, the inspection of paintings, engravings, and other
productions of the fine arts, and by rational conversation. I
need scarcely add, that the latter is far superior to all other
modes of entertainment, mingling as it does the useful with
the pleasing, and should be studied, as an accomplishment,
by every member of cultivated society. Yet how small is
the number of our well-trained colloquists, compared to that
of our dextrous gamesters!
On the origin and history of gambling, though important
to my purpose, I shall touch but lightly, sundry considera-
tions forbidding me to do more. It is a vice of great anti-
quity and extent, having been practised from time immemo-
rial, and, more or less, by every people. It is worthy of re-
mark, however, that it prevails now, and has always prevail-
ed most extensively and desperately, in savage and barbar-
ous nations, especially during the periods of exemption from
their customary labours, and, as already intimated, among
the most uneducated, the worst educated, and the idlest, portion
of nations called civilized. I say, " called civilized;" for, as
far as a people tolerate and countenance gambling, they for-
(9)
feit their claim to civilization, and sink in the scale of real
humanity. Wherever practised, then, or by whomsoever
practised, whether in palaces or hovels, by kings or princes,
nobles or commoners, the vice has arelick of barbarism in it.
In proof of these views, all thorough-bred gamblers have in
them a taint of the ruffian and the desperado; and the most
reckless gambling, of which we have any knowledge, is per-
petrated by the Tartars, Malays, roving Arabs, and other
hordes and communities similarly brutalized. Among those
sons of licentiousness and crime, it is quite common for the
gambler, having lost every thing else, to stake on the hazard
his wife and children, and ultimately himself; and, from hav-
ing been the natural slave of his own propensities, to be-
come the conventional one of a successful antagonist. This
is especially true of the Malays, a people noted for the fier-
cest passions, and the worst of vices. Nor are hundreds of
our civilized gamblers any better. Though the laws, which,
in other respects, they so flagrantly violate, prohibit them
from transferring to their associates their own freedom, or
that of their families, they bring down on both a degree of
ruin scarcely inferior; and, if permitted to do so, they would
consummate their work, by enslaving themselves and fami-
lies, like other barbarians, who are much less criminal in their
atrocities, because less enlightened. I have witnessed, at a
gaming table, a burst of desperation and madness (for I shall
presently show that it is madness) which, if not restrained
by law, would have led, I feel persuaded, to the impawning
of wife, children, and self. This is neither a trope, a figure,
nor an exaggerated expression intended for effect; it is sober
truth.
Even those who most loudly declaim against gambling,
and assail it with the bitterest invectives, do not always fix
their condemnation of it on what constitutes its real vicious-
ness and crime. They do not, I mean, charge the criminali-
ty of the practice to the proper account. The criminality
does not consist in the nature of the game, the loss of time
incurred at it, the habits formed, or the effects produced by
B
( 10)
it. Most of these, though serious evils, can hardly be call-
ed criminal. The actual crime of a game of hazard con-
sists in the fraudulent intention, with which it is played—the
sordid and lawless design of one person to deprive another
of his means of subsistence, contrary to his wishes, without
giving him an equivalent for them. Such design forms the
vital spirit of theft, pocket-picking, and robbery, as well as
of all sorts of knavery and imposture; and, that it also con-
stitutes the spirit of gambling, no one will deny. Remove
it, and each of the practices will be innocent. With it, they
are all criminal—in their nature equally so; the difference
between them consisting in degree. Man has a natural
right to the product of his labours, whether bodily or mental,
or both, and may dispose of it as he pleases, provided he
does not interfere with the rights and interests of others. To
deprive him of it, therefore, without his consent, is to vio-
late a natural law, in common with all conventional laws
framed for the protection and security of property, and is
acknowledged felony. But thus to deprive others of their
property and rights, is the gambler's trade. And in that
consists his guilt.
Attempts are made, on various grounds, to palliate, if not
to justify the vice of gambling. There is no great harm, it
is alleged, in playing a few social games, at cards, to pass
away the time, at the hazard of six and a quarter, or twelve
and a half cents a game. Or, should the wager rise to twen-
ty-five cents, the mischief of the evening, among friends and
neighbours, who can afford to lose, is not great. If not per-
fectly innocent and allowable, the play is, at least, a grati-
fying amusement to those concerned in it; and, to make the
worst of it, it injures nobody but themselves. An indul-
gence in it, therefore, in their own houses, is their indisputa-
ble right. Such is the defence of cheap gambling, set up by
those, who are themselves addicted to it—and there it ends; no
others adopting it. How can they? It is not only weak and
futile; it is no defence at all, but a mere apology, which is
virtually a confession, that the thing apologized for is wrong.
(11)
Where nothing is done amiss, an apology is not only unne-
cessary, but out of place. In the present case, moreover,
every thing is amiss. It is not true, that the mischief of
family gambling is confined to the players. The example is
infectious and demoralizing, and renders the vice a spread-
ing evil. Hence the lookers-on, whether children or adults,
are soon identified with the perpetrators of it. Belting is,
in its spirit, an intended violation of the principle of right,
and is, therefore, clearly forbidden by the law of conscience.
Hence it is criminal. But a petty crime is not the less truly
a crime, because it is petty. And it is the usual harbinger of
something worse. The brightness of noon-day does not
burst on us, nor the darkness of midnight fall on us, suddenly.
The former has its dawn, and the.latter its twilight. So has
vice. No one attains the zenith of it at a bound. His as-
cent to it is gradual. Hogarth's murderer commences his
coirse of cruelty and crime, by impaling insects and run-
ning pins and bodkins into the flesh of his brothers, and sis-
ters, advances in it by cutting off the ears and tails of cats
and dogs, matures it by maiming and assassinating men, and
ends it on a gibbet. In like manner, he who begins by play-
ing for small sums, is easily seduced into a gradual increase
of his hazard, until he acquires a passion for gambling, plays
for thousands, and encounters ruin. "Lead us not into temp-
tation" is worth all the other petitions that language can ex-
press, or imagination conceive. It is an epitome of wisdom
indicating the best protection of innocence and preventive
of guilt. But he who plays for any wager, however small,
runs counter to that petition, courts temptation instead of
avoiding it, and incurs the risk of becoming a victim to its
seductions. In fine; the man who dallies with crime, be-
cause it is small, is wanting in the moral or the reflective
faculties, or in both, perils his own reputation and interests,
and presents an example pernicious to society.
Another defence of gambling is that of high example. Jt
is contended that the practice is followed by many richly
gifted individuals, who have, notwithstanding, attained great
( J2 )
distinction, and conferred important benefits on their race.
This is true; and the fact is deplorable. That such men
should enrol themselves, by night, in the lists of vice and in-
famy, in defiance of their own declarations and actions, by
day, but exhibits in bolder relief the danger of gambling,
and condemns the practice of it in stronger terms. The
vice which can thus pollute the fountain of feeling, and the
infatuation which can inthrall the most powerful intellect,
and turn it to the worst of purposes, must be appallingly
deep and dangerous. If so mighty an evil be not suppress-
ed, on what ground can feebler natures hope to resist it!
That the class of men referred to would have been much
more useful, estimable, and worthy of trust and imitation,
had they never gambled, will not be denied. In a moment
of reflection and conscience, they will not deny it themselves;
but, with feelings of contrition, will acknowledge it true,
and perhaps resolve to abandon their course. But the tempt-
er returns, in the form of a dissolute associate, and they
yield to'his solicitations, and follow him again to the hot-
house of profligacy, and the tomb of their own virtues. Thus
do they descend from their elevation, by consorting with
reprobates and joining in their revels, and become terrible
examples of vice and mischief. At best, therefore, they are
but as archangels fallen and in ruins, no less pre-eminent in
apostacy and guilt, than in prostituted strength and forfeited
glory, and dangerous to others precisely in proportion to the
powers they abuse. Their example seduces thousands of
inferior beings, who feel honoured in their society, to follow
them into the gulf, which has swallowed up themselves.
Be it remembered, that no greatness, however splendid, can
consecrate a lawless act, or give it dignity. On the contra-
ry, it but renders it the more pre-eminently disgraceful, and
and the more pernicious. The glory of Caesar took nothing
from the crime of enslaving his country, nor the mightiness
of Napoleon from that of the millions of lives he sacrificed
to his ambition.- In each case, the pre-eminence of the usur-
per, to use the words of the poet, has but the more irrevo-
( 13)
cably "damned" him "to everlasting fame"! Of the illus-
trious gambler the same is true. The vice he has contract-
ed, sordid in its nature, and as rank in venom as the " plague
of leprosy," clings to his reputation, like the tunic to Hercules,
and infects it with a malady, as deep and incurable, as it is
foul and repulsive. Or if, by an abandonment of his habits,
the disease itself be removed, no waters of repentance can
wash away the stains it has incorporated with his name.
They are a,s abiding, as the turpitude of their source.
It is again contended that it is not criminal, in the gambler,
to take the money he has won, because the loser surrenders
it voluntarily. True; and so does the traveller voluntarily
surrender his purse to the highwayman. But he is constrain-
ed to do so, by the fear of death, in case of refusal. Of two
evils he but chooses the lesser. The booty, therefore, is
feloniously obtained. And the individual robbed by the gam-
bler, gives up his money, from the dread of dishonour, accord-
ing to gambling rules, should he venture to withhold it.
Death, moreover, might be the alternative, in his case also,
desperadoes in gaming having often committed murder, on
account of money won and withheld. The same principle,
therefore, here alleged in justification of the gambler, may
be, with equal force, adduced, to justify the footpad or the
pirate. In each case money is surrendered alike, by a con-
strained, act of the will.
But the defence of gambling, on which its advocates most
confidently rely, is yet to be mentioned. It is that the haz-
ard of losing at play is mutual, and incurred by the consent
of the parties. Each gambler is endeavouring to rifle the
pockets of his companions, they being privy to his design,
and by this the vice of the whole is extinguished. The
game is a struggle of self-defence, in which the only means
to escape fraud and wrong, is to commit them; and therefore
the entire proceeding is innocent, and its issue just.
That common men should argue thus, does not much sur-
prise me. To analyze and reason, especially as to sub-
jects of any abstruseness, is not their province. No wonder,
( 14 )
therefore, that they are not at home in it. But, that enlight-
ened and educated men, whose business it often is to defend
and inculcate right and justice, expound law, and award to
wrong and injustice their penalty "and punishment, should
thus err, and "palter in a double sense," is matter of aston-
ishment. It is a principle in criminal law, that if one person
intentionally induces another to assault him, and kills him,
when about to commit the assault, he is guilty of murder. His
on this ground that duelling is indefensible. The combat-
ants, being under no control of necessity, voluntarily incur
danger, and cannot, therefore, avail themselves of the plea
of self-defence. Hence, to kill in a duel is to commit homi-
cide, and cannot be defended, on any principle of morality
or right. In like manner, the gambler, who intentionally
exposes himself to having a fraud practised on him, is not jus-
tified in practising a like fraud on his antagonist, by way of
prevention, reprisal, or indemnification. On the contrary,
he is guilty of adouble crime; the unnecessary and forbidden
exposure of himself; and the equally forbidden wrong he
meditates toward another. If a felon attempts to steal my
horse, and even succeeds, I am not therefore justified in steal-
ing his; much less am I authorized to do so, having sustain-
ed'no loss by him, however felonious might have been his de-
sign. If a highwayman demands my purse, I have a right to
resist, and, if necessary, to take away his life, in my defence.
But I have no right to rob him. To do so, would be an act in
me, as illegal and criminal, as that he was meditating against
me. Nor have I a right to retaliate, in kind, on the pick-
pocket or the cheat. Much weaker would be my claim to
either of these forms of retaliation, had I incurred intention-
ally the hazard of being wronged.
This subject may be stated in yet another light, which
will render the unsoundness and absurdity of any and every
defence of gambling still more palpable. A party of regu-
lar pickpockets resort to some rendevous, avowedly to prac-
tise on each other their light-fingered trade. Will the strug-
gle for victory in address and dexterity, extinguish the vice.
( 15 )
or detract from its criminality? No one will expose his want
of judgment, by an affirmative answer. It would be nearer
truth to say, that the flagitiousness of the crime would be
magnified, by the new and audacious mode of practicing it.
Yet it is just as criminal to play for money, at games of
card or dice, as at a game of pocket-picking. In either case,
money is feloniously taken, by the successful competitor.
And mere modes in felony make no essential alteration in
guilt. There is no more of crime, in pulling an associate's
watch out of his pocket, without an intention to keep it, than
there is in playing cards or chess, without a bet. It is the
unhallowed and lawless design, that constitutes the guilt. To
deprive a comrade of his watch, by a game at cards, or a
throw of dice, is as clearly unjust, and therefore, as immoral,
as to steal it; though, in consequence of fallacious views and
a pernicious custom, it is not accounted so ignominious or
criminal.
But why do I dwell on the proof of a position, which is-
already self-evident! To adduce further arguments in main-
tenance of it, would be a waste of time. Gambling is as in-
defensible, as murder. And from its boundless prevalence,
it surpasses murder greatly, in the extent of the misery
it produces, and the amount of moral corruption it diffuses
through society. For every single individual that is seduced
to profligacy and ruin, by the example and devices of the as-
sassin, thousands are thus seduced, by those of the gambler.
Hence the deep abhorrence, with which the vice of the lat-
ter has been regarded, by the enlightened and the virtuous,
as well in ancient as in modern times. Cataline, the chief
of conspirators, was scarcely less reprobated for his gambling,
than his treason. And, in his career of crime, Arnold be-
came a gambler first, and then a traitor. It is even more
than suspected that his losses, in the former character, aided
in urging him to the guilt of the latter. Be that as it may,
he was an arch-criminal in both; and gambling was the elder
sin.
A passing notice of female gamblers may not be amiss; for,
( 16)
disgraceful and offensive to delicacy as the fact is, society
contains such unsexed beings. I have never known one of
them that was'an amiable woman. True; many amiable and
estimable women, exemplary wives and excellent mothers,
may be induced, to oblige others, to participate in what they
consider the mere amusement of a card table. But they
never play to win, nor enter fiercely into the spirit of the
game. Even in what they do, however, they act improper-
ly, by setting an example to their families, that may prove
disastrous. But, different from these, as vice is from virtue,
ferocity from mildness, and impudence from modesty, are fej
male gamblers. They engage in the sport with inordinate de-
votedness, play furiously for gain, and are, without an excep-
tion, shrews and termigants. Were they not so, they would
have neither taste nor fitness for the game. And, to their
other exceptionable qualities, they usually add the more pet-
ty, but hardly less disreputable vices of tattling, slander, and
unlady-like language.
The philosophy and alliances of this vice, shall next be
the subject of a few remarks. Its affinity to theft, pocket-
picking, and robbery has been already asserted. It shall be
my business, now, to state to you'the grounds, on which the
assertion rests. That gambling is analogous, in its object, to
those three forms of felony, has been already shown. It is
a fraudulent attempt, in one man, to'deprive another of his
property, without an equivalent. And, to add to the guilt of
the crime, that attempt is made, in avast majority of cases,
by the most sinister means. But, having hitherto spoken
chiefly of what is called honorable gambling (the poet too
tells us of " an honorable murderer.'''') I shall not, now, make
any special reference to that kind which is the more flagiti-
ous. The least criminal form of it is bad enough for my
purpose.
Gambling is as closely allied to theft, po'eket-pieking, and
robbery, in its origin, as it is in its end. The parentage of the
four vices is the same. They spring from the same seed, and
are nourished by the same soil, the form of culture only be-
( 17)
ing different. They are all, in an equal degree, the growth
of the animal compartment of a badly balanced brain, and
of the same portions of that compartment. In other words,
they are the product of the abuse of a given set of the ani-
mal faculties. The real human faculties—those, 1 mean,
which peculiarly distinguish man from the brute creation,
and alone give him dignity and worth—are all opposed to
them, condemn them, and strive to prevent and suppress
them. But that I may be fully understood, I must speak more
definitely.
It is acknowledged by every one, who pretends to an ac-
quaintance with mental philosophy, that the brain is the or-
gan of the mind, through which it manifests all its faculties.
Those faculties, which are numerous, are divided into animal,
intellectual, and moral, each one of which is the product of
a given portion of the brain. Nor has the same portion,
which serves as the instrument of one faculty, any direct a-
gency in the production of another. Each faculty, there-
fore, is the exclusive offspring of its own appropriate cerebral
organ. Some of the animal organs are, Amativeness, the
instrument of physical love, Philoprogenitiveness, the instru-
ment of the love of offspring, Adhesiveness, the instrument
of friendship and general attachment, Combativeness, of
courage, Destructiveness, of the propensity to destroy, tor-
ture, and inflict other sorts of pain and injury, Secretiveness,
of concealment, deception, and falsehood, and Covetiveness,
the instrument of the love of gain. Of the intellectual or-
gans, the Reflective ones, consisting of Comparison and Cau-
sality, constitute the higher class, and are the more important
to my present purpose. Of the moral organs, three of the
principal ones are, Benevolence, whose name sufficiently in-
dicates its facul'ty, Veneration, which furnishes one of the
chief elements of piety-, and Conscientiousness, the source of
thelove of justice and right. There are several other moral
organs of importance; but I have enumerated only these
three, as being peculiarly opposed to the vice I am consider-
ing, and calculated to restrain it, when strongly developed.
C
( is ;
In all low and habitual profligates, to whatever forms of vice
they may be addicted, those organs are defective.
It has been stated, that gambling, theft, pocket-picking,
and robbery belong to the animal compartment of the brain.
In further specification,! shall now add, that they are all the
immediate growth of Covetiveness, Secretiveness, Dcstructive-
ness and Combativeness,* the four most dangerous of the or-
gans—dangerous, I mean, when not held under due control, by
the higher organs—and it is only when they are allowed to act
in excess,and become rebellious, that they lead to the perpetra-
tion of either of the vices, just enumerated. In each of those
vices, however, the several organs specified are not equally
concerned. In daring robbery, the chief instruments are CoVe-
tiveness and Combativeness; and the same is true cf what is
called manly gambling. In neither of these modes of vice is it
necessary for Secretiveness or Destructiveness to take a very
prominent part. Circumstances may occur, however, to call
them both into action. They clearly belong, therefore, to the
family group. In theft and pocket-picking, Secretiveness is
necessarily associated with Covetiveness. So it is in unfair
gambling; and, as already stated, the practice is almost al-
ways unfair. He that takes intentionally another's property,
without giving an equivalent for it, is rarely conscientious in
relation to the means. With but few exceptions, he makes
no distinction between right and wrong, foul and fair, except
as his sordid selfishness directs him.
To furnish further illustration and proof of my position.
Covetiveness is the basis of the four kindred vices, of which
I am speaking. Without an excess of that, constituting an
inordinate and reprehensible love of gain, there would be nei-
ther a wish entertained, nor an effort made, to take posses-
sion, in any way, of property not fairly earned, or legally
paid for. Without Combativeness, the source of daring, the
traveller's purse would not be demanded on the highway, at
* Several of the intellectual faculties are also concerned. They,
however, are employed only as means for the gratification of the four
animal enea here enumerated.
( 19 )
the risk of the felon's life. Hence noted robbers are always
intrepid. Lafitte, the pirate, was an instance of this. So
was Barrington, the celebrated English highwayman; and
so was Lewis, the daring Rob Roy of the Alleghany moun-
tains. Without Secretiveness, in full developement and
high activity, there could not be practised a sufficient amount
of stratagem and device, for the procurement of gain, by
theft and pocket-picking. Nor, without Destructiveness in
unusual vigour, would one man causelessly inflict pain or in-
jury on another; much less would he rob, steal, or pocket-
pick, and then murder, to prevent detection. These several
views are as applicable to gambling, as to the other three
vices. As just stated, lawless Covetiveness is not only a
necessary ingredient in them all; it is their vital spirit. Cor-
rectly may I subjoin, that it is an indispensable element in
all games of hazard; or rather in the minds of those who
practice them. To the gambler, moreover, courage is neces-
sary, to induce him to hazard his money on the game; he
must be actuated, more or less, by a feeling of Destructive
ness, else he would not wantonly injure, and often ruin his
antagonist; and Secretiveness is the source of his stratagems
and overreaching. Thus strong are the mutual alliances of
gambling, theft, pocket-picking, and robbery, which proves
them satisfactorily to be of the same family. Clearly, then,
in profligacy and guilt, gamblers, thieves and pickpockets,
robbers and pirates, are but different species of the same
genus. Let gentlemen and family-gamblers ponder well this
classification, and say, in a moment of reflection and consci-
ence, whether they are willing to purchase the gratification
and profit which play affords them, at the expense of the
deep stain it imprints on their character!
The hostility borne toward these vices, by the moral and
reflecting organs, has been already referred to; and the proof
of it is clear. It is borne equally, moreover, toward the
whole of them. Benevolence, the source of kindness, mer-
cy, and charity, is opposed to them, by reason of the injuries
and miseries they inflict on our race. Vererition is at war
(20)
with them, because they are in violation of the commands of
Heaven. And Conscientiousness combats them, for the out-
rage they commit on the principles of justice. Nor are the
reflective organs less inimical to them, in consideration of
the wreck they threaten to all that is orderly and valuable
in society. Hope and Ideality, too, whose enjoyments arise
from the beauties of the present, and the brightness of the
future, and which turn, with dissatisfaction, from what is pol-
luted, unsightly, or without promise, are permanently their
foes. In fine; every element of reason and justice, patriot-
ism and philanthropy, and of whatever else is allied to virtue
and friendly to man, is in array against them, and against
them, 1 say equally; no discrimination, in principle, being
made between them. Safely may I add, that no man with
moral and reflective organs preponderating in power, over
his animal organs, has ever been a gambler or a robber, a
thief or a pick-pocket. As soon shall ponderous bodies mount
upward, by the influence of gravity, or light ones descend
through a heavier medium. I shall only subjoin, that the fa-
culty most directly opposed to these vices, is Conscientious-
ness, to which fraud of every description is peculiarly odious.
That faculty is, more than any other, the natural foe of in-
justice and knavery.
Such, I repeat, are the native and mutual affinities of gam-
bling and theft, pocket-picking and robbery—the issue of the
game parentage, instinct with the same spirit, dependent on
the same principles, aiming at the same end, and productive
of like consequences. What, then, is the quality that dis-
tinguishes them from each other? On the score of spirit and
principle, I say again, (and the reiteration can hardly be too
frequent) no such quality exists; but, in their effects on so-
ciety, the difference between them is immense. For everv
single instance of ruin and wretchedness arising from theft,
pocket-picking, and robbery united, gambling alone produces
thousands. Search the records of the four vices, written in
despair, madness, suicide, bankruptcy, the reduction of wives
and children from opulence and ease, to want and beggary,
(21)
with their withered and tottering frames, sunken eyes, and
squalid countenances, and the many other forms of individu-
al, family, and social desolation thence resulting, and they
will amply sustain the truth of my assertion. Yet are thieves,
pick-pockets, and highwaymen called/e/orcs, and senlenced
to imprisonment, transportation, or the gibbet; while gam-
blers are denominated sporting gentlemen, or gentlemen of
pleasure; are welcomed into fashionable society; and are
themselves, in many instances, mirrors of fashion, and leaders
of the ton. My allusion is to gentlemen gamblers, who assume
the mask of some other calling, by day, and consort with the
Black-leg and the ruffian, by night. And grieved I am to
say, that there are multitudes of these day-maskers and
night-revellers, in every section of our country.
In the practical nefariousness of gambling, theft, and rob-
bery, there is another enormity which attaches to the former,
but from which the two latter are comparatively free. It is
the contagiousness of the vice. While the gambler robs the
youth of the means allotted for his education, or as a capital
for business, he imbues him with the fell corruption of the
gaming table, seduces him form the paths of rectitude and hon-
our, and initiates him in his own detestable occupation. Thus
is the son not only beggared in his fortune, but made a source
of mortification and mourning to his parents and family, and,
in moments of awakened conscience and sober reflection, of
abhorrence to himself. The thief and the robber are inno-
cent of this. They open no schools of instruction in profli-
gacy and felony, but, in comparison, confine wilhin them-
selves the guilt and disgrace of their lawless vocation. Nor
is the whole yet told. To supply himself with means for the
gaming table, the apprentice pilfers from the drawers of his
master, the shop-boy and the clerk from those of their em-
ployers, and bank-officers rifle the vault and the strong-box.
To complete the picture; the ward, for the same purpose,
steals from his guardian, the brother from his sisters, and the
son from his parents! So closely is theft allied to the card-
table!—This is no fancy-piece, but a plain representation of
daily events.
( 22 )
A catastrophe still more disastrous not unfrequently be-
falls the gambler. A brief anecdote will best reveal it to
you. There was, not far from this place, a few years ago,
an industrious and accomplished young mechanic, of excel-
lent promise, and highly respected. At a few social card par-
ties, he was a successful adventurer, which so infatuated him,
that he continued to play, neglected first, and ultimately
abandoned, his trade, and became a Black-leg. He had
married an amiable young woman, who died from mortifica-
tion and grief, on account of his irregularities and vices.
After various adventures and difficulties, he at length killed
a civil officer, in an attempt to arrest him. By this murder,
he escaped arrest and imprisonment, for the time, and is now
a fugitive from justice, destined, should he be apprehended,
to expire on a gibbet. Cases of this sort are not unfrequent.
Yet still is gambling not only tolerated and countenanced,
but also practised, in what is falsely styled the best society—
I say "y^/tfeA/" so "styled," because it consists of individuals,
who are engaged in the habitual violation of the most divine
precept that ever issued from the lips of a teacher, "Do un-
to others, as you would that they should do untoyoU." When
seated at the gaming-table, the members of this " best soci-
ety" practically reverse this admonition, by endeavouring to
do to others what they eagerly strive to prevent others from doing
to them. Such is the gambler's golden rule—the burden of
all his purposes, and the motto of his life. And I repeat,
that "very one who plays for money is a gambler, as well in guilt,
as in name.
But all the evils of gambling are not yet enumerated; nor
even the worst of them. I have represented it as a conta-
gious vice; and it is so, from a twofold cause; example, and
inheritance. Of the first of these causes I have already
spoken. On the last I shall now make a few observations.
All constitutional qualities descend, by inheritance, from
parents to their offspring. This is a law of hereditary de-
scent, which no well informed physiologist will controvert.
And it is most powerful and certain, as relates to qualities
( 23 )
seated in the brain; that being the master organ of the sys-
tem. But it has been already shown, that the gambling
propensity is of cerebral origin; and, that by being long
fostered, and habitually cultivated, it increases in strength,
and becomes constitutional, cannot be doubted. Facts innu-
merable prove that it does. It even assumes, in many in-
stances, a form of positive and permanent monomania. The
history of hundreds of gamblers testify to this. Nor is the
reason concealed from us. By being constantly and intense-
ly exercised, the cerebral organs concerned in gambling at-
tain a size and a degree of vigour, and are thrown into a
state of excitement so inordinate, as to become ungoverna-
ble. Their condition approaches to that of intoxication.
Hence, like the dram-sot, when deprived of his bottle, and
the tobacco-sot of the juice and fume of his weed, the gambler
is wretched, when absent from the gaming table, and is driv-
en to it by an impulse he cannot resist. 1 say he "cannot,"
because he is insane. And one form of insanity is as irre-
sistable as another. If it were resislable, it would not be in-
sanity. In many cases, the gambling monomania can be no
more withstood, than that under which the invalid believes
himself haunted by ghosts and goblins, visited by angels, or
favoured by an intercourse with the apostles and prophets.
But madness of every description is known to be communi-
cable from parents to offspring.
Thus is the propensity for gambling rendered constitu-
tional, by the predominancy in size and power of the cere-
bral organs immediately concerned in it. And the state and
character of those organs descend, by inheritance, from pa-
rents to their children, as the state and character of the lungs
do, in hereditary consumption, of the lymphatic system, in
scrophula, or of any other organ of the body, or any feature
of the face. A gambling father, therefore, has presented to
him the prospect (the hateful product of his own guilt) of be-
coming, not only the sire of gambling sons, but the progeni-
tor of a race of gamblers indefinitely extended. Or the
euccession may be diversified with thieves, robbers, and pick-
( 24 )
pockets, according to the form of training received. It is
on this principle, that the propensity to rapine is hereditary
among the Arabs, that of theft among the Tartars, and the
propensity to murder among the Caribs. By thus entailing
on his offspring the moral taint, which his own vices have en-
gendered in himself, the gambler verifies the allegory, that,
"the fathers having eaten sour grapes, the teeth of the chil-
dren are set on edge." Be this view of the subject received
and treated now, as it may, it will rank with physiological
axioms hereafter. All accurate observers and enlightened
thinkers will acknowledge, that the gambling organs and
propensity may become heir-looms in families, and thus the
vice be perpetuated. Nor will it be less certainly settled,
as a maxim in physiology, that a rage for gambling rises of-
ten to madness, and should be so considered and treated. JVly
precise meaning is, that gambling monomania consists in an
organic affection of the brain, produced by an excess of ex-
citement and action in certain portions Of it, and can be
cured only by such remedies as are suitable to other forms of
phlogistic insanity. For the affection is as truly phlogistic,
though not as intensely so, as phrenitis or peripneumony.
And hospitals for mcid gamblers, where the treatment should
consist in low diet, seclusion, clay caps, and other cold ap-
plications to the head, every form of evacuation, as symp-
toms might indicate, and sound moral instruction, would be
valuable institutions. In this, I am serious. Give me the
direction of such an establishment, with the requisite means
at my command, and I will agree to the forfeiture of my
reputation, if I do not, in a reasonable time, cure of their
vicious propensities the most'arrant gamblers in the United
States. They shall voluntarily acknowledge, that the prac-
tice is criminal, and that, for the time being, they have no
desire to resume it; but the reverse. And the cure will con-
sist in having given to the moral and reflective organs of the
brain, the mastery over the animal ones, that had been re-
bellious. I will not promise, that the gambling mania shall
never recur; because, here, as in other complaints, relapses
( 25 )
may be produced by an improper exposure to exciting causes.
Add to this, that madness, in all its forms, is more or less of
a periodical disease. To the gambling mania there probably
attaches no exemption from this law.
If, then, it be true, that the propensity to gamble may be
communicated by parents to their offspring, how fearful are
the responsibilities of fathers, who recklessly addict them-
selves to that vice, in defiance of reason, morality, and law!
Under circumstances, which aggravate their guilt, by strip-
ping them of every excuse for their profligacy, they incur
the risk of doubly disgracing and ruining their families, and
inflicting a twofold injury on the community; first, by their
infectious example; and, again, by communicating constitu-
tionally to their sons, the moral contamination, which makes
lazars of themselves. Men who will not be moved, by con-
siderations like these, to abandon any form, of vice, however
firmly they may be wedded to it, are dead to the calls of the
domestic and social affections, callous to conscience, and lost
to virtue, and deserve to be marked, as heartless, husbands
and fathers, hopeless reprobates, and enemies of the com-
munity.
For one form of gambling, (or, to accommodate my langu-
age to fastidious ears, I shall call it sporting,) which is alarm-
ingly fashionable, a more plausible defence is attempted. I
anticipate, therefore, some difficulty, in convincing even pure
minded men, and deliberate thinkers, who have not thorough-
ly examined the subject, that the sport is vicious, and the
defence of it fallacious. Perhaps a leading cause of this is,
that it is not pursued under the seal of secrecy, or the cover
of night, but publicly, and in the face of day. It need scarce-
ly be added, that I allude to horse-racing. That, to those
who are more engrossed in present scenes, than concerned
about their consequences, there is amusement and gratifica-
tion in the sports of the turf, no one will deny. The fine
figures, lofty bearing, bold and emulous spirit, elastic move-
ments, and surpassing fleetness of the noble animals, excite
admiration, and almost persuade us that the scene is inno-
D
( 26 )
cent—certainly they induce us to wish it so. But, where
strong feeling is awakened, first impressions should be held
suspicious, until coolly considered. When we look on the
crowd that assembles to witness the scene, listen to their li-
centious and profane discourse, examine their wild bacchan-
alian carousals, observe their reckless dissipation of means,
which they ought to appropriate to better purposes, and re-
flect on the consequences, our sentiments change. We al-
most sicken at the contrast, are ready to denounce the spec-
tacle as infamous, and to proclaim the horses by far more wor-
thy and honorable animals, than most of the human beings
around them.
Shall I be told, that the culpable behaviour of the specta-
tors is not a necessary appendage of horse-racing, but only
an incidental concomitant of it? I reply, that, whether in-
cidental or essential, it is a never-failing concomitant—at least
in a higher or lower degree. In that respect, therefore, the
practice is either bad in itself; or it is flagrantly abused.
Whether we examine it in Europe or America, the confu-
sion, riot, and licentiousness which mark it, are the same.
We must, therefore, consider it, and speak of it, as we know
it to be; not as we might wish it, or as our fancies might re-
present it, under some imaginary state of society. A turf-
scene, quiet and becoming, from the beginning to the end of
it, has never been witnessed. Nor, while the propensities of
man continue as rebellious to reason and decorum, as they
now are, is it to be hoped for. The sporting field will al-
ways continue, as it always has done, to present offensive
and disreputable spectacles of idleness and intemperance,
and a revolting carnival of the grosser passions. There is
nothing in it allied to either refinement or virtue—nothing
to encourage industry, strengthen or elevate the intellect,
promote morality, or advance, in any way, the public good—
but palpably the reverse. Nor is the worst yet told. The turf
and its purlieus are the chosen haunts of gamblers and pick-
pockets, jockies and sharpers, and of other characters, that
must not be named. Nor does the footpad fail to partake of
the rev«li. Attracted by the fit opportunity to practice their
(27 )
callings, those lawless sons and daughters of theft, rapine,
and debauchery, crowd to the place, from all the surrounding
region, often to the distance of several hundred miles. And
the scenes they enact are in keeping with their characters.
Is it possible, then, that any one of intelligence, reflection,
or sound morality, will or can seriously and conscientiously
advocate a sport, which is thus constantly accompanied!—
which calls together, as if by fate, a mass of depravity and
moral loathsomeness, which reason proclaims and experience
proves to be a mighty evil, and from which all that is pure
and valuable, in humanity, instinctively recoils!-As soon shall
contraries be identified, and opposites unite in harmony, as
any pageant that is spotless and praiseworthy, be the uniform
resort of profligacy and guilt. In the moral world, as in the
natural, like attracts like—vice, vice, and virtue, virtue. By
no kind of direct affinity, or collateral influence, can inno-
cence and guilt consort with each other.
Shall I be told again, as I often have been, that the sports
of the turf improve the breed of horses? Granted, for.sake
of the argument; though not conceded as a truth. Do they
also improve the breed of men? Do they quicken industry,
and beget habits of sobriety and economy? Do they pro-
mote health, purify morals, refine manners, enlighten the
mind, rectify the taste, or elevate, in any way, the character.
of man? Finally; when considered, in all their relations and
consequences, do they advance permanently either public or
individual good? To answer these questions affirmatively
would be hazardous to reputation: because it would be to
assert what sound judgment condemns, and experience dis-
proves. Replies in the negative Can alone be supported.
Nor does racing improve the breed of the most useful class
of horses. Far from it. The fleetest of those animals are
not best fitted for the most important purposes—the opera-
lions of the plough, the wagon, the dray, the pleasure-carri-
age, or the saddle. Even in this age of break-neck and
space-consuming velocity, we do not wish, when travelling on
ordinary business, or for profitable observation, to be spirited
( 28)
along at the rate of twenty or thirty knots an hour. A mod-
erate but firm and steady gait, without fretting, faullcringor
flagging, is most desirable; and for that the racer is not dis-
tinguished. He has more of metal, than of stanchness in
him. A horse greatly inferior to him in fleetness, and that
was never intended to compete with him on the turf, will
surpass him in strength and ordinary action, and break him
down in the useful labours of agriculture or the road. And
he will do so, on the same ground that a sturdy farmer will
vanquish, in durability and general efficiency, a tumbler or
an opera-dancer. That a horse may be really and highly
useful, he must be produced, reared, and trained for a given
purpose, and in such a manner, as'to adapt him best to some
truly useful employment. By those who are skilful in breed-
ing and instructing them, horses may be very strikingly modi-
fied and improved in spirit and temper, no less than in size,
strength and figure. But, to call racing a "useful employ-
ment," is a perversion of terms. Am I told that blooded
horses are more valuable than those of any other class?
Granted; but all blooded horses are not bred for the turf;
nor are they fitted for it. There is but one caste of Arabian
horses that are peculiarly fleet. And they, being necessarily
light, are suited only for action, nor for purposes of great
strength. . But, to be highly valuable, a horse must possess
both strength and action, as other castes of the Arabian do;
while true racers do not.
For what purposes, then, are running horses more valua-
ble than others? The reply is easy; to pass swiftly over the
ground, in a race or a hunt, leap over a six-bar gate, be in
at the death of the fox, and sometimes, but not always, to be
admired for their fine forms; and there their superior quali-
ties end. Neither in England nor America, are racers the
handsomest or the most useful caste of horses. Were the
whole class extinct, its loss would be unfelt by any of the
great interests of society. The most serviceable horses in
this country are in New England, where the turf is unknown.
And they are sufficiently elegant for style and parade. In
( 29 )
Virginia, on the contrary, where the breed of running horses
has been most extensively and successfully cultivated, the
common farming and riding horses are of the most ordinary
character—greatly inferior to those of the same class north
of the Potomac. Their cultivation and improvement are ne-
glected, and racers only made an object of skilfhll and earnest
attention. The truth of this is confirmed by the spectacle
of any public country meeting in that State. Go to such a
place, and, with a few exceptions, you will see nothing but a
comparatively miserable collection of horses—far from being
equal to those you will find, in a like situation, in any of the
middle or eastern States, where the animal is reared for us«5,
not for sporting or show. And this is more especially true
of eastern Virginia, the chief nursery of the breed of racers.
In a land of primogeniture, fox-hunting, and opulent aristocracy,
the turf-hor9e is at home; but he is dislocated, and worse than
useless, in a region of equal rights, sober industry, and profita-
ble agriculture. To the State of Virginia, he has been a
grievous evil; and he will become so to Kentucky, unless his
culture, with the idleness, negligence, dissipation, and im-
morality it leads to, be abandoned. To his breeder and
owner, and the fortunate adventurer on his speed, he may be-
come a source of profit; but, to the community at large, he
is an unqualified loss—else there is no harm in bad habits,
misplaced attention, demoralizing associations and practices,
and waste of time.
From Kentucky numerous droves of valuable horses are
taken annually to the southern market. By whom are they
reared? By the breeders of running horses? No truly; but
by substantial farmers, who distinguish correctly between
fancy end rea%/the showy and the useful. For every single
horse sent to the south, by those who breed for the turf, hun-
dreds, perhaps thousands, are sent by men who have never
owned a racer, and rarely seen one. In fine; the sentiment,
that turf-sporting improves the breed of horses, is propagated
either by men personally interested in having it believed,
by hasty and superficial observers and thinkers, or by those,
(30)
who neither observe nor think, but repeat, as talking ma-
chines, the empty notions they receive from others. By
whatever means, however, or through whatever channel pro-
pagated, it is unfounded.
Considered, then, in its character and consequences, horse-
racing is an evil of no common magnitude, and ought to be
suppressed. If for no other reason, it stands condemned, on
the ground, that it is a sport of hazard, whose design and effect
are, to transfer property from one person to another, without
an equivalent, and in opposition to the well known wishes of
the former. In that respect, therefore, though not in ruffian
violence, it is on par with robbery.
Once more. We are told that a man's property is his own;
and that he has, therefore,, a right to dispose of it as he
pleases. That is a mistake. A man has no right, except
the right of power, to use his property in such a way, as to in-
jure himself or his family; much less to injure others. In this
case right and justice are the same. No man has a right,
therefore, to shoot himself with his own pistol, because, by so
doing, he acts unjustly to his family and to society, who have
claims on him; nor, for the same reason, has he a right to cut
off his fingers and toes, or otherwise maim himself, with his ■
own knife. He has no right to burn his own house, even
though it stands apart, and remote from all other houses;
much less has he a right to do so, at the risk of consuming
the dwellings of his neighbours. Nor have two gamblers a
right to play a game of hazard, the terms being that the
loser shall destroy his own horses and cattle, or-commit to
the flames his household furniture. Finally; a man has no
right so to use, or rather abuse his possessions, as to set a bad
example by his acts, or causlessly diminish the wealth of the
community. Any exceptions that exist, are rights of necessi-
ty, where a lesser evil is purposely incurred, to avoid or pre-
vent a greater. All games of hazard, then, where proper-
ty is staked, being of pernicious example, are, morally wrong,
and should be discountenanced by society, and prohibited by
law—horse-racing not excepted
( 31 )
Such are my sentiments on the subject of gambling. That
some persons will silently dissent from them, others openly
oppose them, and perhaps a third class take offence at them,
I am prepared to believe. But, however much I may regret
the latter event, and however little I may have intended to
produce it, neither consideration, nor all of them united, can
arrest me in my course, or induce me to swerve from the ob-
ject I have in view. I am actuated on this occasion, by no
private motive. I have no secret grudge to gratify, nor any
individual wrong to avenge. No gambler has ever seriously
injured me either in my purse, person, or reputation; nor,
with a very few exceptions, have I, knowingly, exchanged,
with a professional gambler, even a passing salutation, dur-
ing the last half of my lifetime. My earnest and only de-
sire, at present, is, to perform, with faithfulness, my humble
part, in a confederate and general effort, which I trust will
be made, to exterminate one of the most ruinous of vices.
I have delivered this address, in obedience to a strong and
lively sense of duty, no less to the community at large, than
to you, as a portion of it, to whom I am bound by ties and
obligations, not to be disregarded by me. Though your main
object, in resorting to this school, is the acquisition of pro-
fessional knowledge, it is not the only one confided to the
attention and care of your Preceptors. You have other im-
portant interests at stake—your means of subsistence, your
reputation, and your morals; the latter by far the. most sacred
and invaluable. And permit me to tell you, as a friend and
counsellor, and to warn you with sblemnness and parental
solicitude, that, unless you be vigilant, and alive to the
schemes that are meditated against you, they are all in jeop-
ardy. Even now, in this city, and, for aught I know, with-
in this sanctuary of science and letters, heartless and con-
scienceless auditors of what I have said, your foes are in am-
bush for you. With the fellness of the tiger crouching in
his jungle, eager to glut himself with the blood of the un-
wary, they are waiting "in grim repose," ready to pounce
on you, and make you their prey. I allude to those moral
( 32 )
iirrers, the Bl.uv^eos and gentlemen gamblers, by whom
w* are infested. And, to you, the latter are the more dan-
gerous of the two, because the most specious and least sus-
pected. They will betray you, if not "with a kiss," with
the insidious smile and prostitute courtesy of proffered hospi-
tality. Of this 1 could give many atrocious examples. Shun,
1 implore you, as you would the breath of pestilence, or the
path of the Sirocco, the atmosphere they pollute. It is as
rank in moral, as the emanation of the Upas, in physical
poison. Its touch, if not deadly, is unavoidable contamina-
tion. Be his reputed standing what it may, suspect the de-
signs, and guard against the devices of the man, who seeks
your acquaintance, under a fair exterior and insinuating
manners, and asks you to join him, in a social game of cards.
His eye is on your purse, and he will beggar it if he can.
Nor arc your reputation and morals less endangered, if he
gain your confidence, and become your companion. That
word social, however innocently and attractively it may
sound, has seduced into mischief, and destroyed, its thous-
ands. An artful profligate invites an unsuspecting youth to
join him, first, in a social bottle of wine, and, next, in a
social game of cards, makes him drink to intoxication, rifles
his pocket, gives him a taste for play, and thus initiates him
in a course, which leads to intemperance, gambling, and
profligacy, and ends in ruin. A bravo asks an acquaintance,
against whom he harbours a design of blood, to take a so-
cial evening walk with him, and, in a moment of requested or
proffered service, treacherously murders him. A practised
libertine gains permission to visit a family, in a social way,
and repays the favour, by seducing to infamy a confiding fe-
male. In like manner, gamblers have also their social snares,
in which they entangle and destroy the unwary. And, I re-
peat, that such traitors are now in the midst of us. Again,
therefore, I earnestly entreat, and solemnly caution you, to
hold no intercourse with them.
As to professional gamblers, who are, already, not only
notoriously infamous, but callous to infamy, and content with
( 33 )
degradation, nothing can protect society from them, but
criminal and conservative law, wisely framed, correctly in-
terpreted, and strictly executed. For the suppression and
prevention of genteel.and family gambling, there exists an-
other and a more effectual measure; and public sentiment
must be the agent to enforce it. By that, every form of pri-
vate gambling should be stript of its glossy guise and seduc-
tive harlotry, held up to reprobation in its naked odiousness,
and publicly branded as a dishonour and a crime. Its per-
petrators and abettors should be excluded from places of
public trust and emolument, as well as from the bosom of
honorable society, and held fit objects for the "finger of
scorn," and the eye of abhorrence, until cleansed of their
taint in the waters of reformation. But this is not all.
Public houses, which give accommodation and countenance
to professional gamblers, should be marked and shunned by
the friends of the community, as haunts of vice unworthy of
patronage. All strangers, moreover, unacquainted with
their character, should be warned againsU'esortino- to them.
Let these things be done, (and they can be best done by as-
sociations formed for the purpose) and the evil will be ex-
terminated. Nor could any event rejoice me more, nor any
measure redound more to your honour and benefit, as indi-
viduals and a class, than that you should erect yourselvea
into such a society, to guard the school, under whose banner
you have enrolled yourselves, and whose ornament and pride
I trust you will become, from the abomination of gambling.
Having organized yourselves for the purpose, solemnly ad-
monish your fellow-members, individually and collectively,
against the vice; and, should any one of them be found guil-
ty of it, fix on him a mark of merited disgrace, and hold no
communion with him. And in this your Preceptors will so
far co-operate with you, as to exclude him for ever from the
honours of the University. The rites and badges of this
institution must never be desecrated to give standing to a
gambler. By this measure, if adopted and practised on, you
will set an example that will be applauded and followed,
E
( 34)
and confer a benefit on the community, which will be accept-
ed with gratitude, and will cause your names to be held in
honorable remembrance, when the tomb shall be your dwell-
ing. There is a ripeness in public feeling for such an en-
terprise. Indications not to be mistaken convince me, that
the period has arrived, when a war, in a confederate form,
may be waged successfully against the vice of gambling. In
the metropolis of Virginia, our mother State, the conflict
has commenced, under the auspices of an anti-gambling asso-
ciation. And it would rejoice me immeasurably, were the
standard, in the West, first unfurled in Transylvania, under a
like association, and the first blow inflicted, by her high-
minded sons.
ANTI-GAMBLING SOCIETY
OF
TRANSYLVANIA. UNIVERSITY.
On Tuesday evening, Nov. 4th, 1834, at a meeting of the
officers and classes of Transylvania University in the Medi-
cal Hall, after a very eloquent and forcible address by Pro-
fessor Charles Caldwell, on the subject of the Vice of
Gambling, it was Resolved, that measures be immediately
entered into with a view to the formation of an association
against this prevalent evil: in pursuance of which, Profr.
John E. Cooke was called to the Chair, and Robert Peter
appointed Secretary.
It was then, on motion of Profr. Wm. Richardson, unani-
mously Resolved, that a Committee of seven be appointed to
prepare a suitable code of regulations for an Anti-gambling
Association of the Officers and Members of Transylvania Univer-
sity, to report at the earliest period; whereupon the following
gentlemen were appointed the Committee:
Profr. L.P". YANDELL,
RIDGLEY GREATHOUSE, of Ky.
ROBT. N. MURPHY, " Ala.
JAMES P. BRIDGES, " Miss.
GEO. O. HILDRETH, " Ohio.
JOHN HURT, " Va.
ANDREW J. WHITE, « Tenn.
At a subsequent meeting held pursuant to adjournment,
a Committee composed of the following gentlemen:
ALXR. M. KELLER, of Ala.
WM. A. WARE, " Tenn.
DAVID F. BLACKBURN, " Ky.
was appointed to express to Profr. Caldwell the unanimous
thanks of the Faculties and Classes of Transylvania Uni-
versity, for his very eloquent Address, and to request from
( 36)
him a copy for immediate publication in pamphlet form; and
the Committee on subsequently reporting that they had wait-
ed on Profr. Caldwell, and that a copy of the Address had
been placed at their disposal, were, by resolution, enjoined,
Profr. Yandell having been added to the Committee, to
take measures for its immediate publication.
The Committee for drafting a code of regulations for the
government of the contemplated Anti-gambling Society, also
reported a draft of a Constitution, which, after some slight
modifications was adopted, as follows:
CONSTITUTION
OF THE ANTI-OAMBLING SOCIETY OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY.
Whereas, Gambling.is a practice fraught with consequen-
ces the most pernicious to society, and the most ruinous to
the property, morals and standing of individuals; and where-
as it has become alarmingly prevalent,
Resolved, That it is the duty of all good citizens to give
their aid to its suppression.
Resolved, That, in furtherance of this design, we, Profess-
ors and pupils of Transylvania University, do form ourselves
into an Anti-gambling Society, to be denominated and gov-
erned as follows:
Article 1. It shall be called th*e Anti-gambling Society
of Transylvania University.
Art. '2. Its officers shall consist of a President, four Vice
Presidents, and a Secretary, to be chosen by the Society.
Art. 3. The members of this Society, on signing this
Constitution, pledge themselves to abstain from every species
of betting, and all kinds of games of chance for money or
property, and in every proper and honorable way to discour-
age and suppress the vice of gambling.
Art. 4. Any Officer, Professor or Pupil of Transylvania
University may become a member of this Society by signing
this Constitution, and may at any time withdraw from it on
application to the Secretary, but shall be considered a mem-
ber until he withdraws or is expelled.
( 37 )
Art. 5. The Society shall have the power of expelling
members for a violation of the pledge.
Art. 6. There shall be a stated Annual Meeting on the
first Monday of every November, and such other meetingi
as the Society may deem necessary.
The following gentlemen were then elected Officers of
the Society.
ProVr. CHARLES CALDWELL, President.
Burton Yandell,^
J. H. D. Rogers,
C. A. Jones,
John Hurt,
Robert Peter, Secretary.
The number of Signatures obtained was upwards of one
hundred and twenty, but as all have not yet received a full
opportunity for signing it, and as it is confidently believed
that no one will withhold his assistance from the good work,
many more will be added.
By order of the Society,
CHARLES CALDWELL, President.
Robert. Peter, Secretary.
>Vice President!.
\
=SSS=
AN ADDRESS
ON THE
VICE OF GAMBLING,
BY CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D.
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